Thrill-kill trial testimony focuses on newspaper worker’s killing

VALLEJO — The second week of the jury trial wrapped up Wednesday for a Vallejo woman who faces a pair of murder charges.

Paige T. Linville, 29, is accused of killing two women, one in Cordelia and one in Dixon. Linville and her boyfriend, Mario R. Moreno, killed just for the thrill and gave differing versions of who shot who since their arrests, according to law enforcement authorities.

Christina Baxley, 41, a single mother of two, was shot multiple times on the afternoon of Nov. 16, 2007, while walking her dog Snowy in front of her Dixon apartment during her lunchtime break from her job at the Dixon Tribune newspaper.

Several hours earlier, Amber L. Chappell, 34, was also shot and killed on Ramsey Road in Cordelia.

Prosecutors believe both killings were random and that Linville and Moreno were both on a methamphetamine binge at the times of the shootings.

The prosecution case Wednesday focused largely on Baxley’s killing and the crime scene investigation done by Dixon police with the assistance of Department of Justice investigators. Police obtained video surveillance camera footage from the apartment complex management that showed a car matching Linville’s repeatedly driving past the apartment shortly before Baxley was killed.

The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday.

Reach Jess Sullivan at 427-6919 or [email protected] Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jsullivandr.

Jess Sullivan

Jess has covered the criminal justice system in Solano County for several years.
He was an embedded reporter in Iraq in 2003.